An engaging school story with a lot of heart and a dash of mystery.
Fifth grade teacher Mr. Dwyer used to be popular at Baxter Elementary School—until an unexpected event changed him from one of the best to Don’t-Care Dwyer.
Through alternating first-person points of view, troublemaker Toby Mitchell, overachiever Harper Manning, quiet Lenny Allen, baseball-loving Derek Hunter, and brainy Dakota Sunderland chronicle their year in Room 202 and the arrival of their new student teacher, Mr. Jacobs. Mr. Jacobs (who was a fifth grader himself in 2010’s Because of Mr. Terupt) breathes new life into the classroom with creative projects and teaching techniques that serve as the catalyst to challenge the students to learn and grow in new ways. Buyea deftly creates five distinct voices that readers will easily be able to differentiate. The shifting perspectives offer multiple angles for observing the leads’ emotional growth over the course of the year. The story is carefully plotted, with different details surrounding the mysterious event that so dramatically changed Mr. Dwyer purposefully divulged. Readers will eagerly play detective, piecing together the details, and by the end they’ll have a clearer picture of the whole story before any of the characters do. The narrative is accessible, with short chapters that keep the action moving, making this a good pick for striving readers. The main characters read white.
An engaging school story with a lot of heart and a dash of mystery. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2026
ISBN: 9798217028085
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: today
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and...
Catrina narrates the story of her mixed-race (Latino/white) family’s move from Southern California to Bahía de la Luna on the Northern California coast.
Dad has a new job, but it’s little sister Maya’s lungs that motivate the move: she has had cystic fibrosis since birth—a degenerative breathing condition. Despite her health, Maya loves adventure, even if her lungs suffer for it and even when Cat must follow to keep her safe. When Carlos, a tall, brown, and handsome teen Ghost Tour guide introduces the sisters to the Bahía ghosts—most of whom were Spanish-speaking Mexicans when alive—they fascinate Maya and she them, but the terrified Cat wants only to get herself and Maya back to safety. When the ghost adventure leads to Maya’s hospitalization, Cat blames both herself and Carlos, which makes seeing him at school difficult. As Cat awakens to the meaning of Halloween and Day of the Dead in this strange new home, she comes to understand the importance of the ghosts both to herself and to Maya. Telgemeier neatly balances enough issues that a lesser artist would split them into separate stories and delivers as much delight textually as visually. The backmatter includes snippets from Telgemeier’s sketchbook and a photo of her in Día makeup.
Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and unable to put down this compelling tale. (Graphic fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-54061-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
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